Survelliance 3 - Resistance

Question 1

Part 1

The core aim of the eradication of privacy is to..

Answer 1

The core aim of the eradication of privacy is to eliminate rebellion, however, only the regime in Nineteen Eighty-Four has the capacity to achieve this.

Winston’s first overt act of rebellion occurs when he is “outside the range of the telescreens.” Winston only has the courage to rebel when he believes that his resistance is not being monitored, which encompasses the ability of surveillance to crush rebellion.

Question 2

Part 2

The Party takes this power further by purposefully giving…

Answer 2

The Party takes this power further by purposefully giving its citizens the impression that they are not being observed, to catch them in outward acts of dissidence.

This is illustrated through the Party’s surreptitious surveillance of Winston when he is in Mr Charrington’s shop, which results in his demise in the Ministry of Love.

The GDR is also shown to restrict rebellion through the destruction of privacy, but not to the same devastating extent.

Question 3

Part 3

Julia’s family knew that there were things..

Answer 3

Julia’s family knew that there were things which “could be discussed at home” which could not be discussed elsewhere.

This illustrates that citizens of the GDR only showed discrepancy when they were free of the Stasi’s surveillance.

A distinct difference in the power of the two regimes is that Julia’s home was truly devoid of surveillance, which empowered her family to freely express dissident thoughts in it.

Question 4

Part 4

The Party manages to eradicate internal resistance as well, but..

Answer 4

The Party manages to eradicate internal resistance as well, but this was done through fear and torture as well as surveillance.

This suggests that Funder’s regime over relied on surveillance and as such did not achieve the same level of success as the Party in eradicating resistance. Thus, surveillance is portrayed as a weakness as well as a strength in Stasiland.

Surveillance is shown to restrict rebellion in both regimes, but only in Oceania is this power realised to its full extent.